Category Archives: Books

Book: Renegade History of the United States

We like to romanticize the American past. Thaddeus Russell, in his book “A Renegade History of the United States,” (2010) does somewhat the opposite. He shows how our cherished, traditional views of American history may not tell the whole story. This is not a partisan book; there is no political agenda or even any political point of view. He’s just a historian who says, “It didn’t necessarily happen like you were taught.”

I love this kind of stuff. At the same time, I don’t swallow everything Russell writes as the Gospel truth; it’s dangerous, and simple-minded, to believe a writer just because you are predisposed toward their views. But, like a good historian, he documents what he writes. Most of it rings true.

His continuing thesis is that much of what made American great is attributed to the dregs of society—the underclass, the scorned, immigrants, minorities, criminals. The renegades. He brings these people to light in fascinating ways. This contrasts with the traditional narrative that America’s greatness is the fruit of brave and righteous people who fought for freedom and justice. Yes, there were plenty of those people. But he shows how America excels at assimilating renegades, and how they’ve made real contributions to Who We Are.

For instance, Russell contends that prostitutes did as much as anyone to advance women’s rights, and were among the wealthiest—and most liberated–women of the American West. He shows how mobsters advanced gay rights (most early gay bars were backed by the mob). He deals at length with some of the immigrant classes and how they were initially scorned—the Irish, Jews, Italians, and others. He delineates the contributions and culture of rednecks and hippies. He has chapters like this:

  • “How Gangsters made America a Better Place.”
  • “How Juvenile Delinquents Won the Cold War.”
  • “Whores and the Origins of Women’s Liberation.”

The most interest chapter, to me, was the first: “Drunkards, Laggards, Prostitutes, Pirates, and Other Heroes of the American Revolution.” He portrays a Colonial America far different from the genteel, astutely-dressed, well-mannered society we typically envision. Our image relates only to the upper classes, who may have held power, but they were the minority. A whole different kind of society existed for the lower classes, including the thousands and thousands of people pouring off the boats from Europe, trying to make their way in the New World. They were a rowdy, immoral bunch, doing whatever they could to survive in a land without rules.

The most controversial part of the book comes next—chapters about slavery. He paints a very politically incorrect picture, yet one which I’m sure bears much truth. It rings true to me, and fits with other things I’ve read. While he emphasizes that slavery was a horrible thing which needed to end, he portrays the daily plight of slaves as not quite as bad as we usually think.

There were parts of this book I loved, and parts I found not so interesting. But overall, it’s a book I highly recommend if you are intellectually curious enough to let your presuppositions be challenged.

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Book: “Matched,” by Ally Condie

“Matched,” by Ally Condie (Nov. 2010), is the first book in a planned trilogy (the second book, Crossed, arrives in November 2011). This is juvenile fiction set in a dystopian society. I read it on my Nook.

There’s a word I’ve not used before–dystopian. That term refers to a futuristic society which appears utopian, but is repressive and authoritarian. It’s a negative utopia. Dystopias often require conformity to a regimented social order. Other examples from literature and film would be 1984, Farenheit 451, Logan’s Run, Minority Report, The Handmaid’s Tale, Rollerball, Brave New World, Aeon Flux, Clockwork Orange, and the Hunger Games trilogy.

Movies like Bladerunner and Soylent Green are futuristic, but not utopian. And movies like Mad Max and the Postman are post-apocalyptic, but neither futuristic nor utopian–just set in the future.

“Matched” revolves around Cassia, a girl living in a world where the Society (the government) controls and predicts everything. (The cover, with a girl enclosed in a green bubble, excellently portrays that.) The book starts with Cassia being matched–learning who the government has decided she will marry. This is a big event, a special day, something young people eagerly await. They willing accept their Match, because the Society knows best.

As it turns out, Cassia is matched with her best friend, Xander (it’s rare that you’re matched with somebody you know). But when she plugs in a data card containing information about her match, she briefly sees the face of another boy she knows, Ky. An Official comes to talk to her, telling her this was a mistake. But it gets her wondering, and she begins questioning the rules of her world.

Allie Condie

As the author said in an interview on Amazon, the book is about Cassia “learning to choose.” She loves Xander, who is a genuinely Good Guy, but is intrigued by Ky, who has a mysterious past and knows things other people don’t. Also, he’s an Aberration–a classification far beneath Cassia’s social status, something for people who don’t fit in. As an Aberration, Ky can never be matched, and his role in life will never get better than working in the garbage processing plant.

It’s kind of a love story, or an infatuation story, as Cassia’s friendship with Ky deepens. And there’s obviously a love triangle. But it’s all G-rated, innocent. I think there was a kiss, but nothing beyond that.

Condie builds a society that seems perfect. The government controls everything, but in a way people accept. It’s not a heavy-handed police state, at least not where Cassia lives. In the outer regions, where Ky is from–that’s a different story, though this book doesn’t tell us much about it. There are many Officials–both of Cassia’s parents are Officials–who have extra authority in the Society. But nobody’s carrying a weapon, nobody gets imprisoned. It’s a benevolent dystopia.

The Society determines who you marry, what job you’ll have, what you eat (meals are delivered, with portions and enrichments tailored for each person), and even when you die. Everyone dies on their 80th birthday.

If anyone bucks the system, shows individuality, they can be Reclassified. That’s what happened to Ky, as a result of transgressions by his parents. But it’s even worse to be an Anomaly. Condie never really explains the ramifications of this classification; we just know it’s the lowest rung on the ladder.

The book alludes to an earlier world, which is clearly our world. People are allowed to own one “relic” from the past. In Cassia’s case, it’s a compact. Most everything else from the World That Was has been destroyed.

Cassia, who tells the story first-person, says:

You never know when technology might fail. That’s what happened to the society before ours. Everyone had technology, too much of it, and the consequences were disastrous. Now, we have the basic technology we need–ports, readers, scribes–and our information intake is much more specific. Nutrition specialists don’t need to know how to program air trains, for example, and programmers, in turn, don’t need to know how to prepare food. Such specialization keeps people from becoming overwhelmed. We don’t need to understand everything.

When it comes to culture, the Society kept 100 of everything and ditched the rest. There are the Hundred Poems, Hundred Paintings, Hundred Songs, Hundred Stories. Everyone knows and studies these, but nothing more. The Society had decided their culture was too cluttered, “and everyone believed because it made sense. How can we appreciate anything fully when overwhelmed with too much?”

Cassia’s grandmother was one of the cultural historians who helped select the Hundred Poems. But she receives from her grandfather a Dylan Thomas poem he has secreted away, “Do Not Go Gentle.” This poem plays an important role in the book, a continuing theme which motivates much of Cassia’s thinking and actions.

Condie draws an interesting world, with plenty of details, and yet there’s so much I don’t know about it. The Hunger Games struck me the same way. I’ve read only the first book in each of these series, and will definitely read the others. I’m sure more of this futuristic world–how it developed, who is in control, etc.–will unfold in subsequent books. I guess Condie provided enough, for now.

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Book: “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter”

This afternoon I finished “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,” by Seth Grahame-Smith, the same guy who brought us “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” I read it entirely at Barnes & Noble over the past two months, taking advantage of the ability to read a book for an hour on my Nook when in the store. Had 60 pages left today.

This was a fun, harmless read. The book was published in March 2010. Grahame-Smith takes real-life events and injects a world in which vampires exist. Lincoln learns about the existence of vampires as a child, and with his trusty axe becomes a proficient vampire slayer. He is befriended by a vampire named Henry (there are “good” vampires”) who regularly feeds him the names and locations of vampires, who live as regular people with ordinary jobs. Lincoln then picks up his axe and heads to that town, dispatching vampire after vampire.

Most of the book takes place during Lincoln’s early life. We travel with him to Louisiana, where he finds vampires living somewhat openly. He discovers that many slaveholders are vampires, using slaves as fresh food. We follow Lincoln’s life through his business enterprises, his family life, and his budding interest in politics.

Lincoln runs for office in Illinois, but continues his vampire-hunting on the side, sometimes squeezing in a kill between speeches. Then, finally, he becomes president.

The Civil War is, to a large extent, a war against the vampires who, behind the scenes, rule the south. This part of the book doesn’t last all that long, but it’s quite fascinating since the events (especially battles) are far better known (to me) than the rest of Lincoln’s life. I enjoyed watching how Graham-Smith wove his vampires into the Civil War.

Then, of course, we come to John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of Lincoln. I thoroughly enjoyed how the author brought his book to a close.

Overall, not a deep book, obviously, and I’m sure Grahame-Smith played loose with historical facts. But hey, it was a fun read.

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Who Cares About Your Memoirs?

Neil Genzlinger reviewed four new memoirs in the January 30, 2011, edition of the New York Times Book Review. He subtitied it, “A moment of silence, please, for the lost art of shutting up.”

Genzlinger insists that way too many people are writing memoirs, which is something I’ve noticed. I mean, Justin Bieber wrote his memoirs! And Patrick Buchanan, who served with a bunch of presidents, hasn’t?

Genzlinger writes:

Memoirs have been disgorged by virtually everyone who has ever had cancer, been anorexic, battled depression, lost weight. By anyone who has ever taught an underprivileged child, adopted an under­privileged child, or been an under­privileged child. By anyone who was raised in the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s, not to mention the ’50s, ’40s or ’30s. Owned a dog. Run a marathon. Found religion. Held a job.

He then lays down four guidelines for memoirist wannabes, and illustrates each point with his review of a memoir.

  1. That you had parents and a childhood does not of itself qualify you to write a memoir.
  2. No one wants to relive your misery.
  3. If you’re jumping on a bandwagon, make sure you have better credentials than the people already on it.
  4. If you still must write a memoir, consider making yourself the least important character in it.

If you have an eclectic love for books, you might appreciate this cleverly crafted piece.

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Book: “Generation Kill,” by Evan Wright

“Generation Kill” is among the many superb books written by journalists about the Iraq and Afghan wars. Dexter Filkins, David Finkel, Sebastian Junger, John Krakauer, Michael Yon…and now Evan Wright. Though actually, Wright came first, publishing this book in 2004.

Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone contributing editor, was embedded with the First Recon Marines during the 2003 invasion. As soon as the invasion started, they were at the forefront, plunging deep into Iraqi territory. The book won a national magazine award, and was adapted as an HBO miniseries.

Wright specialized in writing about youth subcultures–radical environmentalists, skateboarders, criminals. He saw the military as another youth subculture. He pitched the idea to his Rolling Stone editor, and found himself in a combat zone for the first time. And whereas many reporters experience one firefight and then go home to tell their story and act like experts, Wright endured 17 firefights, including one during which 26 bullets slammed into his Humvee door.

Evan Wright

“Generation Kill” definitely has the feel of Rolling Stone. The tone and style would make the legendary Stone writer Hunter S. Thompson proud (though Thompson would have been a bit more irreverent).

Whereas Sebastian Junger’s book “War” was focused in one place, “Generation Kill’ is pretty much a frantic, careening joyride through southern Iraq. It reminded me a bit of Kelly’s Heroes.

Take a bunch of young men, train them to use very destructive weapons, get them hyped up, and then send them out to meet the enemy. That’s a recipe for mayhem. And Wright records plenty of mayhem. These young soldiers, highly trained and eager to use their expensive weapons, shoot up the countryside, including a number of innocent bystanders. There are a couple incidents which could easily be labeled as war crimes, and the targeting of civilians is disturbing, though the “fog of war” justifies a good deal of it.

“However admirable the military’s attempts are to create Rules of Engagement, they basically create an illusion of moral order where there is none. The Marines operate in chaos. It doesn’t matter if a Marine is following orders and ROE, or disregarding them. The fact is, as soon as a Marine pulls the trigger on his rifle, he’s on his own. He’s entered a game of moral chance. When it’s over, he’s as likely to go down as a hero or as a baby killer.”

Wright does a good job of presenting surreal images of war.

“Corpses of the Iraqi attackers who fell in the road have been run over repeatedly by tracked vehicles….There’s a man in the road with no head, and a dead little girl, too, about three or four, lying on her back. She’s wearing a dress and has no legs….

“You pass three dead men by the road, surrounded by weapons, then shepherds in the field behind them waving and smiling. There’s a car with a dead woman shot in the backseat–no hint why Marines or helicopters shot her.”

Wright makes regular pop-culture references. Of one harrowing drive through a hostile Iraqi town, with everyone emerging unscathed, he wrote, “The whole engagement was like one of those cheesy action movies in which the bad guys fire thousands of rounds that all narrowly miss the hero.”

He  throws out a lot of interesting tidbits, like the fact that while the Marines generally use the metric system, snipers still do everything in yards. And then there are wonderful lines and passages like these:

  • “There’s a definite sense of exhilaration every time there’s an explosion and you’re still there afterward.”
  • “US military doctrine is pretty straightforward in situations like this: if there even appears to be an imminent threat, bomb the crap out of it.”
  • “One thing you can say about intense weapons fire, it sounds like it ought to. It’s an extremely angry noise.”
  • “In a pitched firefight, denial serves one very well. I simply refuse to believe anyone’s going to shoot me.”
  • “In addition to the embarrassing loss of bodily control that 25 percent of all soldiers experience, other symptoms include time dilation, a sense of time slowing down or speeding up; vividness, a starkly heightened awareness of detail; random thoughts, the mind fixating on unimportant sequences; memory loss; and, of course, your basic feelings of sheer terror.”

Wright updated the book in 2008 by tracking down many of the soldiers and letting us know what they’re doing now. Some re-upped for additional tours. He tells their stories, and captures their reflections on the early days of the invasion, in the “Afterword.” This may have been my favorite part. Having become so acquainted with these soldiers, I was delighted to learn what became of them. The book had been out for several years, and the Marines apparently felt Wright captured what happened pretty well. At least, they were open to talking to him again.

Like Eric Kocher, a prominent character in the book. He served four deployments in Iraq, but called it quits in 2007. “I’m just tired of seeing fifty-dollar bombs destroy two million dollar vehicles and kill Marines every day.”

Wright uses the real names of soldiers, except for several officers who are clearly incompetent and, in one case, a little nuts. For them, he goes by their nicknames, two of them being Captain America and Encino Man. I kind of appreciated that.

This is a superb book. I’m not sure that I would recommend it above some of the others I’ve read, but it definitely ranks among the best books about our present wars written thus far.

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Book: Disintegration (Eugene Robinson)

The New York Times Book Review had a piece on Eugene Robinson’s new book “Distintegration: the Splintering of Black America.” The review noted how Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the Washington Post–and an African American–divides the African American population into four groups. Coming from a first-class thinker like Robinson, I found this categorizing very interesting.

1. The Transcendent Elite. These are blacks who are famous or wealthy or highly accomplished, and for whom their skin color just isn’t an issue. A lot of them go by one name: Oprah, Kobe, Labron, Tiger, Jay-Zee, Beyonce, etc. Then there are academics like Henry Louis Gates, and writers like Eugene Robinson, and political figures like Al Sharpton and Colin Powell. They function in a world of wealth and power and, as the review says, “do not belong to the black community.”

2. The Mainstream Middle Class. This group represents the majority of black Americans today. They own homes, work professional jobs, and have a full stake in the American Dream.

3. The Emergents. These are mixed-race families and black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. They obscure our whole image of what it means to be African American. (Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, and Colin Powell would be members of this group, in addition to being part of the Transcendent Elite.)

4. The Abandoned. This is the large underclass who are concentrated in cities and poor Southern rural areas. Their numbers keep increasing.

Robinson writes, ““There was a time when there were agreed-upon ‘black leaders,’ when there was a clear ‘black agenda,’ when we could talk confidently about ‘the state of black America’—but not anymore.”

Robinson says these four groups have little in common and don’t interact much. They have different mindsets, different aspirations, and different lifestyles. As a result, it’s wrong to talk about a “black leader” or “black agenda,” because the dynamics between the four groups are too complicated. We often view the black population as a single entity, especially in political terms (as we do the Hispanic population), but that’s just not the case.

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Book: “The Blonde,” by Duane Swierczynski

Duane Swierczynski has quite an imagination. His books are unusual, and unpredictable. Such was the case with “The Blonde” (2007).

I previously read two of his other books, “The Wheelman” from 2006 and “Severance Package” from 2008.” “The Blonde” would be in the same league as “Severance Package,” both of them dealing an ordinary guy caught up in the machinations of a super-secret government agency which specializes in assassinations. But whereas “Severance Package” takes place in one building during a span of a couple hours, “The Blonde” ranges from Great Britain to Mexico.

The first line is, “I poisoned your drink.” It’s spoken in a Philadelphia airport bar by The Blonde to Jack Eisley, a journalist passing through. Here’s the deal: she has been injected with nanites (tiny robots) which course through her blood. She must stay within 10 feet of someone at all times. If she doesn’t, the nanites will know, and her head will explode. Slipping poison into Jack’s drink, with the promise that he’ll die in 9 hours unless she gives him the antidote, is her way of keeping someone close.

The nanites trace back to a diabolical scientist named The Operator, who is following her. There’s another US agency involved, and they’ve sent a benevolence killer named Kowalski after her. Then Jack gets infected with the nanites, too–they can be transmitted through saliva, and in a weak moment he kissed the Blonde. So now he has to stay within 10 feet of someone at all times, too.

The book takes us on a wild ride through nighttime Philadelphia. As with Swierczynski’s other books, the plot is unpredictable. You just don’t know where things are headed, though it’s obvious a showdown is in the works.

I was surprised when THE END came after 225 pages, and another 50 pages remained. Those 50 pages were filled with a novella called “The Redhead,” which was a sequel to “The Blonde.” Interesting. “The Redhead” was very good.

I’ve become a big fan of Duane Swierczynski. He has a few other books out there, and a new one coming out in March 2011. I need to track these books down.

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Jackie Houchin News & Reviews

Jackie Houchin

Jackie Houchin is a writer in the Los Angeles area who frequently covers cultural events, and writes reviews for several Southern California websites and for three different mystery magazines: Mystery Scene, Crimespree, and The Strand. We have ties through the United Brethren church, and crossed paths when I lived in California.

Jackie also posts lots of reviews on her own website, Jackie Houchin’s News & Reviews. She apparently likes my reviews of mystery books, because she has asked to republish five of them on her site. Just today, my review of “I Am Number Four” appeared.

Here are links to all five of my reviews on Jackie’s site.

  1. I Am Number Four,” by James Frey and Jobie Hughes. (The SteveDennie.com version.)
  2. The Long Goodbye,” by Raymond Chandler. (The SteveDennie.com version.)
  3. Passport to Peril,” by Robert B. Parker. (The SteveDennie.com version.)
  4. The Winter of Frankie Machine,” by Don Winslow. (The SteveDennie.com version.)
  5. Stranger in Paradise,” by Robert B. Parker. (The SteveDennie.com version.)
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Book: I Am Number Four

This was a superb book. I loved it, beginning to end. Read it on my ColorNook.

I recently discovered, or rediscovered, juvenile fiction. “I Am Number Four” (2010) is a sci-fi piece set in contemporary America. The violent Mogadorians invaded and destroyed the world called Lorien, despite the people there who possessed superpowers. Fortunately, a spaceship containing nine children, plus their mentors (called Cepans), escaped. These children would all, in time, develop superpowers, which they could hopefully use to defeat the Mogadorians and reestablish Lorien.

These nine children and their adult Cepans (who lack superpowers) have been hiding on Planet Earth, living without contact with the other pairs, and awaiting the day when their superpowers develop. They already possess unusual speed and strength, but the superpowers will take everything to a whole ‘nother level.

Meanwhile, they are being hunted by the Mogadorians, who want to kill them before their powers emerge. The children are numbered from one to nine, and a Loric enchantment restricts the Mogadorians to killing them in order. The book begins with Three being killed. Then we switch to Florida, where 15-year-old John Smith experiences a third ring burning into his leg, telling him that Three is dead. He and his Cepan, Henri, immediately move to Paradise, Ohio, the latest of numerous moves in their efforts to stay ahead of the Mogadorians.

John enters high school, where he butts heads with football players and falls head over heals for Sarah. His superpowers–called Legacies–also begin appearing (it’s different for all of the kids). But inevitably, the Mogadorians are going to track them down. You know from the start that a confrontation will come. Also, we learn that the Mogadorians, having depleted their own world and now Lorien, have their sights on subduing earth.

The book cover says the author is “Pittacus Lore,” whom we are told “has been on earth for the last 12 years preparing for the war that will decide Earth’s fate.” Since the book is told first-person, my assumption is that “Number Four” and “Pittacus Lore” are the same person. But he’s supposed to be 10,000 years old, and says he’s been trying to unite the Nine. So I’m not totally clear on this.

Back in the real world, the book is a collaboration between James Frey, who came up with the idea for the series, and Jobie Hughes, a 30-year-old guy born in Washington State, raised in Ohio, and now living in New York.

This is the first book in what is being called the Lorien Legacies. A movie is coming out in February 2011, so they’re not wasting any time, since the book was printed in August 2010. I’m not excited about the movie, but I will anxiously await further books in this series. I want to see where it goes.

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Book: The Fabulous Clipjoint

“The Fabulous Clipjoint” (1947), by Frederic Brown, is a coming-of-age story about Ed Hunter, whose father is murdered in a Chicago alley. Ed, age 18, is living with his stepmom and stepsister. He heads to Wisconsin to see his Uncle Ambrose, who works in a carnival. Ambrose immediately leaves with Ed, determined to find who killed Ed’s father and Ambrose’s brother.

The novel moves along at a nice pace. The interaction between Ed and Ambrose is interesting, as are the tactics Ambrose uses to track down the killer in Chicago’s underworld. You see wise old Ambrose, a very street-savvy sort, mentoring Ed and steering him toward manhood. Along the way, Ed learns much about the father he never truly knew–that he was not the weak, pathetic man he thought he was.

I found this book as a freebie epub somewhere on the internet and read it on my ColorNook. Frederic Brown won the 1947 Edgar Award for “Best First Mystery Novel” with this book, having already published hundreds of stories in pulp magazines.

This was a very good book, and since it was free, I consider it a great find. I understand that there are six more books featuring Ed and Ambrose.

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